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Published: January 26th 2009
OK, so we were going to the Gili Islands where there are no cars or motorbikes and it takes an hour to go round the whole place! For those who'd never heard of them: they are three tiny islands just off the coast of Lombok (another island just south of Bali). The three Gilis are: Gili Trawangan, Meno and Air. Trawangan has a reputation of being the party island, which is not quite true. It certainly has a lot of bars and restaurants and decent nightlife but it's nowhere near the banging Kuta that's got a party going on in every other place you walk by.
Trawangan it was then. We started asking around for ferries and it turned out there were two options there: one costing RP 150-200,000 and taking 6-12 hrs (depending on who we asked) and the other one costing RP 660,000 (about £40) and taking 2-3 hrs. At that point, we thought that the more expensive version was much more expensive and we were curious to try out the slower one for much less money. As it happened the whole journey, door-to-door did take around 12 hrs! Got picked up at 6am, taken in a car
to Padangbai where the ferry was going from (about 2 hrs drive). The ferry itself left at 9am and was around 5-6 hrs. On the other side, in Lombok, we got in another car, which got flooded on the way due to heavy floods after the monsoon the night before and due to the fact that car actually deserved a break (it had holes in the floor to start with. I'll leave the rest to your imagination as you won't be too far off…). After being moved into another car, we finally got to another ferry village, this time to get into a much smaller boat, the one that requires you to actually get in the water first before you can get on it - so much for the ferry… That was another 30min or so. By the time we got to Gili Trawangan, it must have been after 5pm. Phew, what a day! The good thing was, the journey was broken up into quite a few legs, so it wasn't too bad. It was a shame to waste the whole day though.
Anyway, we got ourselves a bungalow in Trinacria Village - charming place owned by Nino, an
Italian bloke from Palermo married to Zri, a lovely Indonesian girl. They have a cute baby daughter called Giuseppa who everyone calls Giussy and who's the mascot of the place. Trinacria Village is a funny blend of Indonesian/Balinese style with the Italian one - not something you'd expect. The great thing about the place was its atmosphere - very laid-back and family like. Nino's English was rather poor and I could never work out when he was speaking Italian and when he switched to Indonesian as he had such a heavy accent but we managed. It did pose a problem at the end when paying up for the room as he had a bit of a different rate in mind (three times higher than ours) but we did confirm it a few times in the beginning and the fact he said yes to it without really understanding it wasn't our problem. It was a bit tough but then again, it was even tougher on us to quote something three times higher!
We stayed in Trawangan for 5 days - it was so chilled out! Everyday is spent on eating, chilling out on the beach, snorkelling/diving, more eating, watching movies
in an outdoor cinema, riding bicycles and having a well-deserved drink at the end of the day. Almost a whole week goes by before you know it! I couldn't actually stay there longer than that as there isn't that much else to do or see. We did take a trip to the other Gilis. Meno is the smallest and full of couples, so we skipped that and went to Air, which has got a bigger population than Trawangan but is a bit wilder and you can actually see how local people live! We also saw a komodo dragon, which was rather exciting.
Every single day, as we walked up and down the main road, I & Kasia got quizzed as to whether we were twin sisters. I realise we look like a family but the twin thing was a novelty to us and people got truly excited about it as well! I asked them why they think we are twins and they said it was the hair. Hmmm, since when hair makes people look like twins then?! Anyway, it wasn't just Trawangan - it was everywhere we went that people thought we were twin. We never stopped laughing at
this…
Another thing about Indonesian people is that they say things as they are. If they think someone is pretty, they will not keep it to themselves but say it to them - or so I've been told by an Indonesian girl. And so me & my sister got various people telling us how beautiful we were - I think the big part of it was the white skin. They absolutely love it in those parts! The funniest incident was when we got to the beach in Trawangan. Literally two min after we sat down on our sarongs, this girl comes running to us asking if she could take a photo of us while gasping how beautiful we were. After a little while, she comes back again, this time asking if she could take a photo with her and us on. And then, after that is done, her mother comes and asks to get one photo with us as well! I & Kasia were in tears laughing.
At this point I would like to make some attempt and tell you what Indonesian people are like. It's really hard as we haven't spent that much time in there but
from what I've seen, they are all smiles. Even when they ask you to buy something, nine out of ten they are so polite and gentle. There are always a few exceptions to the rule but overall, my experiences have been absolutely fantastic. It's also so easy to travel on your own there as it's one of the safest areas I have ever been to. We didn't feel threatened once!
Sadly, that was the end of our trip but we had one more crazy journey to do: a fast boat straight back to Bali. It was expensive but we were also running out of time and so decided to pay up the RP 600,000 and have more massages in Bali. The boat itself was a 25-seater, so not too big. As we left Trawangan, the journey was so smooth - I thought to myself that I could travel like that everyday! Unfortunately, after around 20 min, once we passed Lombok, we speeded up and started to bash waves like there's no tomorrow. That went on for three hours solid! I don't know how many times I thought that boat was going to split open - it just wasn't funny.
the old and the new
or so Sandra says...I guess the worst feeling was the freefalling followed by a sudden and always misjudged impact - it always happened when you were least expecting it. By the time we got off the boat, we were feeling soooo queasy! We literally zonked out for a few hours after getting to our hotel room. So, altogether, you do spend less hours travelling but then, you need time to get back into your normal self. Still, altogether less than 12 hrs. However, I am not sure I would do that trip again though.
Oh, and when we were shopping around for tickets, we were told that one of those boats sank the other day. Nice thought for the journey, ugh? I did make sure I knew where life jackets were - you really never know. Plus, if you travel in SE Asia, you always seem to have an "I-almost-died" story and funny enough, a lot of times, they seem to involve boats.
So, after getting to Bali, we spent a day on massages (I fell asleep while having one) and last minute shopping. We then took a flight back to KL. Just as we were about to board our plane,
we saw the news about a plane down in the Hudson river after a failed take-off. Another reassuring thing before boarding a flight…not. KL was also spent on last minute shopping - we found this amazing shop selling pearl jewellery. I must have been in there for a while. We then took this luxurious bus called the Nice Bus back to Singapore and five hours later, we were at the airport packing our flip flops and basically exchanging our summer wardrobe for something warmer. I don't think any of us was ready to do it at that stage but we didn't seem to have much choice there, so…
Being back sucks: it's miserable and people still haven't got over the credit crunch! Check this out: a couple of days ago I watched the news and they said that the UK is now officially in recession. No sh*t! Since when that is the news??!! I thought they were banging on about it long enough for people to realise! Grrr! I need to start planning my next trip… Got a few ideas already, let's see what happens!
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Andrea
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Gili!
Hi! Enjoyed reading your blog, am going to Bali, and the Gili's myself next March- really looking forward to it! x